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Military Stockpiles: A Life-Insurance Policy in a High-Intensity Conflict?

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Focus Stratégique
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The war in Ukraine is a reminder of the place of attrition from high-intensity conflict in European armies that have been cut to the bone after three decades of budget cuts. All European forces have had to reduce their stocks to the bare minimum. As a result, support to Ukraine has meant a significant drain on their operational capabilities. A significant amount of decommissioned systems were also donated, due to the lack of depth in operational fleets.

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Russia, for its part, has mobilized the vast stocks inherited from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to support its war effort after the initial failure of its "special military operation". The process of renovating the oldest systems was also increased, while Russian production of modern equipment remained insufficient.
 
The current conflict therefore sees mixed fleets of very modern systems and much older - even obsolete - ones from long-term stocks. This situation prompts us to question the stockpiling strategies of the French armies and to compare them to those that exist elsewhere.
 
> This publication is also available in French: Stocks militaires : une assurance-vie en haute intensité ?
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979-10-373-0685-2

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Military Stockpiles: A Life-Insurance Policy in a High-Intensity Conflict?

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Léo PÉRIA-PEIGNÉ

Léo PÉRIA-PEIGNÉ

Intitulé du poste

Research Fellow, Security Studies Center, Ifri

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Security Studies Center
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Heir to a tradition dating back to the founding of Ifri, the Security Studies Center provides public and private decision-makers as well as the general public with the keys to understanding power relations and contemporary modes of conflict as well as those to come. Through its positioning at the juncture of politics and operations, the credibility of its civil-military team and the wide distribution of its publications in French and English, the Center for Security Studies constitutes in the French landscape of think tanks a unique center of research and influence on the national and international defense debate.

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Group of kamkazza combat drones against the background of sky and clouds, top view, 3d rendering. Concept: war in Ukraine, drone attack.
Observatory on Future Conflicts
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The Observatory of Future Conflicts is a research program carried out by the French Institute of International Relations and the Foundation for Strategic Research on behalf of the three army headquarters aimed at studying developments in tensions and armaments at the horizon 2040 in a transversal perspective, taking into account the issues of each army.

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Date de publication
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Date de publication
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Military Stockpiles: A Life-Insurance Policy in a High-Intensity Conflict?